Not so bad
by OnceSwanMills
Summary: 18-year-old college student Regina Mills is not happy when she is forced to change classes where she will be seated next to the new student Emma Swan, however, she soon realises that maybe it is not so bad after all.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 _Yet another shitty day._ Regina Mills thought to herself as she unlocked her front door and let herself into her apartment. She had never been a fan of Monday's, or any other day weekday. She angrily threw her bag down by the door and made her way over to the couch as thought back to what she could only describe as 'the day from hell.'

 _6:00 was the time displayed on her phone as the sound of the alarm rang through her small bedroom. She turned the alarm off and forced herself to get up. As usual, the first thing she did is went to make her coffee and checked her emails. She opened up her email app as she waited for her coffee and immediately regretted ever opening them in the first place. She rolled her eyes as she scanned the email that read:_

 _ **Miss Mills,**_

 _ **As of today you will be transferring English classes. Your new room will be Room 2.014, and the class will begin at 9:15 rather than your usual 9:00am start. I hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience for you, however if it will be you are welcome to come to the office before class today and we can talk about any transport issues you may have in the mornings that could cause you to be late to your new class. Your new teacher will be Mr Glass, and I have also requested that he seat you next to another new student to the class, Emma Swan, so that you can both settle into the class together so that neither of you will have to worry about not knowing any of your classmates. If you have any issues with this, feel free to either come to my office or send me an email.**_

 _ **Regards,**_

 _ **Mr. Gold.**_

" _Damn right I have an issue with being told where I will be sitting and who I will be friends with!" she muttered to herself as she threw her phone down harder than necessary on the work surface and prepared her coffee. She made her way back to her bedroom to start the mundane task of getting ready for the day, knowing already that she would be wearing black skinny jeans and a t-shirt, as she had done every day for the last 2 years. She quickly showered and changed, then spent 30 minutes perfecting her hair and makeup before deeming herself presentable enough to leave for college. She picked up the mug of coffee that had long gone cold and made her way back to the kitchen area, accidentally tripping on her way out of her bedroom and spilling coffee all down her new t-shirt that she had selected to wear. "Fucking brilliant!" she yelled, directing her anger towards the empty apartment. She quickly cleaned up the mess and changed, then made the short 20 minute walk to the college building, her bad mood clearly set in place for the day. She entered the building and saw her best friend Kathryn sitting in the café with her boyfriend and a couple of other people that Regina didn't know nor care to know. She reached the table and looked upon the group with a disinterested stare. "Hi, Kat." She greeted, effectively ignoring the rest of the group. "Oh dear," Kathryn said sarcastically, "somebody's in a foul mood this morning." She observed, knowing her best friend well enough to detect one of her common bad moods from the first word she said. "Well, can you blame me? I received an email from Mr. Gold this morning informing me that from this point on he will be choosing my friends for me and intentionally putting me behind schedule." Regina huffed out, angry at even the thought of the email she had received that morning. Kathryn laughed, clearly amused at her friends mood and replied cautiously at the glare she received in return. "Okay, were those his exact words, or has he just done something you dislike which could be causing this slight overreaction?" she asked, knowing that if her friend didn't like what she was asking that she would take her anger out on her, and she really didn't want to deal with an angry Regina Mills at 8:30am on a Monday morning. Regina was angry that her friend was implying that she was in the wrong, but replied to her friend anyway. "Maybe that isn't exactly what he said, but it was pretty much the same message. He told me that I have to transfer to the 9:15 class, and that he is forcing me to sit next to some illiterate fool because he is under the delusional impression that I am not capable of choosing my own friends, although after conversing with you this morning, Kathryn, I am starting to wonder if he is right." She said harshly, not meaning any of it but not being able to stop the angrier she got with the situation. "Okay, I'm just going to ignore the insult because I know you didn't mean it, although you do now owe me lunch today for your misplaced bitchiness. Do you know the name of this "illiterate fool" as you so delicately put it? Because for all you know they could be nice." Kathryn stated. Regina scoffed as she replied, "Unlikely. And her name is Emma Swan, which is a ridiculous name in my opinion, and I do not want to be friends with her." Kathryn laughed at her friend's serious lack of people skills and replied kindly, knowing that it was no use arguing with her. "Nobody's asking you to become best friends with her, Regina. You just have to sit next to her and try to at least be civil, which I know is difficult for you." She said, winking at her best friend to let her know that she didn't mean anything by the comment. Regina did not look impressed but nodded once and muttered the word "fine." Under her breath before telling Kathryn that she would see her at lunch and making her way to the stairs to her new classroom. She eventually found it after 10 minutes of searching. She looked in the window to her new class and saw that it was full apart from 2 empty seats near the front. She made her way into the room confidently and sat down in the space nearest to the door, hoping it would mean that she could get out of there as quickly as possible after the class was dismissed. A few minutes passed, and eventually a man who looked as if he was at least in his fifties entered and introduced himself as Mr. Glass, he welcomed Regina to the class and began to teach. About 20 minutes in, the door opened and a blonde haired girl entered the room, quickly sending a "sorry I'm late" to the teacher and sitting down next to Regina. After about 45 minutes of teaching, Mr Glass gave the class time to get on with their assignment so Regina pulled her laptop out of her bag and reluctantly started to type. She was just starting to get into her writing when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She tried to ignore the irritation she felt from being interrupted as she looked towards the person. Her eyes landed on the person next to her and she raised an eyebrow as if to ask her what she wanted. "Can I help you?" she asked in a disinterested tone. The blonde girl next to her looked slightly surprised by the tone that she just received but she smiled regardless and cleared her throat before speaking. "Um, hi. I'm Emma swan. You're Regina Mills, right?" Regina rolled her eyes at her new 'friend's' enthusiasm but tried to remember Kathryn's advice as she tried to reply to the girl in a civil way. "Yes, I'm Regina. It would seem that we are going to be seeing each other 5 times a week for the next half a year, so I'm willing to be civil with you, but for future reference dear, it's rude to interrupt people." She said it in a dismissive way and there was a slightly hurt look on Emma's face, however the brunette decided to just ignore it. There was no use caring about how she had made the girl feel. They weren't friends. Regina went back to her work but was soon interrupted again by the sight of a pink post-it note being stuck onto her desk. She let out an irritated sigh but decided to just ignore the girl and to not give her the attention she clearly wanted. Eventually, after about 5 minutes, Regina's curiosity and impatience won out, and she picked up the post-it note, but not before sending an annoyed glance in the blonde's direction and rolling her eyes. She looked at the note and was surprised at what she saw._

 _ **I know you said not to interrupt you while you were working but I figured a note wouldn't be too distracting, since we've gotta see eachother all time anyway it couldn't hurt to make friends right? Wanna get lunch with me today? :)**_

 _Regina looked at the note and was immediately angry at herself for the small smile that made its way onto her face, for reasons that were completely unknown to her, so she went to what she knew best and took her anger out on the first person she could. She turned to the blonde with a scowl and screwed up the piece of paper. "I don't know what you're hoping to achieve, Emma, but we are not, and never will be, friends. And I told you not to interrupt me at all, not just while I am working. Find somebody else to annoy." She glared at the blonde for a few seconds before turning away completely. After that, class went by quickly and before she knew it everyone was packing up and leaving the classroom. She had decided that she would apologise to the blonde but when she looked up from her laptop Emma had already left. 'I'm such an asshole.' Regina thought to herself as she packed up her stuff and sent a text to Kathryn to inform her that she wasn't meeting her for lunch. She was feeling uncharacteristically bad for her bitchy behaviour towards the blonde, and she just wanted to go home and sulk._

Regina pulled herself from her thoughts of the day she had, and was about to get up from the couch when she saw a pink note curiously similar to the one she had received earlier that day sticking out from her bag. She walked over and cautiously picked up the note.

 **Regina,**

 **I'm not really sure what I did wrong but I'm sorry, and by the guilty look that you thought I didn't see that crossed your face after you yelled at me, I get the feeling that you're not really like that and it was just maybe not a good day for you? We all get bad days, don't feel guilty :) I'll see you in class tomorrow, but in case you want someone to talk to about whatever was bothering you today, I put my number in your phone while you were working which I get the feeling you'll be mad about but we're not friends yet, so if you are then I've not really got much to lose, right? :P you've got my number if you need it.**

 **Em xo**

For the first time that day, Regina was genuinely smiling as she folded the note and put it back in her bag before getting her phone out her bag to send Emma a thank you text. She wasn't sure what it was about Emma, but she felt the need to give a friendship with her a chance.

 **Emma,**

 **Thank you for unintentionally making my day. I'm sorry for earlier.**

 **Regina**

After staring at the message for what felt like forever, Regina eventually hit send. It only took 2 minutes for a reply to come.

 **No problem, thank you for making mine by giving me a chance :) Don't worry about it! Friends?**

After spending at least 5 minutes staring at her phone smiling like a fool, Regina sent a reply.

 **Friends.**

A few moments later her phone went off again, and Regina had to refrain from opening it immediately, not wanting Emma to realise she was literally sitting there waiting.

 **Awesome! See ya tomorrow, Gina! :)**

She rolled her eyes at the nickname despite the ridiculously large smile on her face.

 **Call me that again and the friendship will be over before it even starts, dear. ;)**

After battling with herself on whether or not the wink would be inappropriate, she decided to just go for it.

 **Sorry Gina. ;)**

No longer caring about the ridiculous smile permanently plastered on her face, she typed out one last reply before going to get ready for work.

 **See you tomorrow, dear. x**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After her time spent texting with Emma, Regina had thought that her day would improve as much as her mood had, however she couldn't have been more wrong. Shortly after she had finished getting ready for work, her mother had called and almost demanded that she meet her for coffee the next day to discuss college and how she was doing with living alone, as she had only been moved out of her parent's house for a month. After spending nearly an hour on the phone with her mother trying, and failing, to convince her to move their meeting to another day, Regina had been late for work and had therefore been asked to stay for an extra 2 hours that evening. When she eventually got home from work, she was exhausted and all she wanted to do was collapse on her bed and sleep, however she had assignments to complete and had not eaten anything all day, so she needed to make herself dinner. She hung up her bag and coat and made her way over to the kitchen, her former bad mood from that morning completely returned. If she was being honest with herself, the only thing that had kept her from going completely insane that day was thoughts of her new friend from her English class. She wanted to text the blonde and speak to her to see if that would cheer her up, however she was worried that texting her again would make her look clingy and weak. She spent at least 15 minutes battling with herself on whether or not it was a good idea, but eventually she decided to send the blonde a message. She figured that if she mocked her for it she could just inform the blonde that she hadn't meant the text for her, and end the friendship, after making her feel stupid for thinking she had meant to message her of course. _Yes, that's the perfect plan._ She thought to herself as she typed out her message.

 **Hi.**

She sent the message, deciding it would be best not to say too much as she wasn't sure that Emma would even want to talk to her again that night. She put her phone down on the table and got started on making her dinner. After about 5 minutes of cooking, she was distracted by the sound of a message coming through on her phone. She walked over to her phone slowly, reminding herself that she didn't want to make herself look too desperate in case she was rejected. She was nervous for reasons that she didn't even know as she turned her phone over and looked at the message.

 **Hey Gina! How are you? :) x**

A large grin spread across her face at the unexpectedly enthusiastic message.

 **I'm fine, dear. Yourself? And I'll ask you again since you evidently weren't paying attention the first time, could you please stop calling me that?**

She sent the message and set the phone down and continued to make her dinner, this time the reply took longer to come in but eventually after about a 15 minute wait her phone signalled that she had a new message.

 **You don't seem fine, dear ;) wanna talk about it? :)**

Regina's first reaction was to be mad at the blonde for questioning her and completely ignoring the fact that she had already informed her that she was fine, however after giving it some thought, she realised that she actually found it rather sweet that somebody cared enough want to know what was wrong, as besides Kathryn, she never really had anybody to talk to. She decided that she would reply to the blonde, but she wouldn't give too much away as she didn't want Emma to think she couldn't deal with things herself.

 **Thank you for the offer, but I really am fine. It's just not been a very good day, and it has only gotten worse since we spoke this afternoon.**

She sent the message and decided to just check her emails while she waited for a reply, as Emma seemed to be rather fast at replying and there was no point trying to cook while she was distracted. She was proven right when a reply came in almost instantly.

 **What are you doing right now?**

She was surprised at the abrupt topic change but replied to the blonde anyway.

 **I'm making dinner, why?**

 **What are you making?**

 **Salad. Why?**

 **Put it in the fridge and meet me at the diner in town. Salad isn't dinner, Regina. You can get something to eat there and we can talk about whatever has made your day crappy. See you there in like 30 minutes, yeah? :)**

The complete lack of control Regina suddenly had over the situation made her uncomfortable but for some reason she really wanted to go and talk to Emma, which made her slightly worried considering she was already starting to form an attachment, but she decided to not read too much into it as she typed out her reply.

 **See you there.**


End file.
